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Navigating perceptions

I’ve been challenged to write something short. Here are 4 stories illustrating how people live and make decisions in the world of their perceptions and not much beyond that.

On health craze

A news reporter states that the amount of running marathons over the past 4 years has risen by 400%. More and more people are visible every day jogging through the streets, the holistic health awareness is on the rise, which is declared by respondents in various research studies and noted by various brands and businesses. Meanwhile, the vast majority of the country is laying on the couch watching TV, not caring or escaping from the health pressures into candy bars. The social demand for being fit is strong, but the digitally-satisfied mind is weak. A quick fix era is born and pharma becomes TOP2 business to be in right now. Most trends are much more noticeable than they are propagated.

On quality

A premium car brand is focusing it’s communication strategy on a flagship, most technologically advanced, high-end model, while using imagery of top-income success people living the dream of life controlled. The flagship model drives 4x less revenue than the basic entry-level model, while over 80% of entire revenue is generated by regular middle-income buyers. Some do and some don’t aspire to the life presented in ads and the signalling value of the brand, but each one wants a high quality car that they can afford, and associations of high quality in the category are built through codes of prestige and outstanding innovation.

On eco

30% of people in the country declare buying eco products. Market reports suggest that sales of eco products made up 0,2% of all food sales that year. People want to participate in the thing, but most of the eco products are out of the financial reach of mass consumer. Mass brands exploit that need by using eco bio codes of communication in their packaging. Consumers didn’t have the awareness and time to realize that.

On prices

In the country famous for being the most smart shopping in Europe, consumers are very aware of the marketing efforts and prices of products. When asked about the cheapest and most expensive store chains in the country they make firm answers. As it turns out the chains they have selected are offering almost identical pricing. The two cheapest perceived players have the biggest physical availability and mental availability efforts of the past 5 years, while also consistently adding top quality products to their shelves. People are not calculators, people do mental accounting and that is strongly influenced by communication.